measures; but these are now drained, and very little is found to flow from them.

The Origin of the Salt in the Dead Sea. -One of our most distinguished explorers of the Holy Land attributes the intensely saline character of the Dead Sea to the hill of Jebell Usdum. This is a huge ridge of salt, about a mile wide, and running N.E. and S.W. for a distance of three miles and a half, then due N. and S. for four miles further. It is situated near the southern extremity of the Dead Sea, and renders that portion of it much more salt than the northern portion. Further, Mr. Tristram thinks that it is the proximate cause of the saltness of the Dead Sea, the drainage to which has been dissolving away portions of salt, and carrying it to the Dead Sea, ever since the elevation of the ridge of Akabah separated the latter from the Red Sea, or since the desiccation of the ocean, which existed to the Eocene period, presuming (which seems most probable) that the fissures of the Ghor were of submarine origin, and that the valley itself was during the Tertiary period the northernmost of a series of African lakes, of which the Red Sea was the next.-Geological Magazine.

Iron Implements in Crannogues.—In a letter addressed to the London Reader, by Mr. George Henry Kinahan, some important points relative to the antiquity of iron, and the necessity for seeking for traces of this metal, have been dwelt upon. While investigating one of the largest crannogues or artificial islands in Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland, he found only stone implements, with the exception of a rude knife, which appeared to be of some sort of bronze. But he observed facts which would seem to indicate that iron implements had been in use among the inhabitants of the crannogues. These facts are as follows: 1st, All the stakes that were drawn had been pointed by a sharp cutting instrument, as were evidenced by the clean cuts. 2d, Pieces of deer's horn that were found had been divided by a very fine saw, as was proved by the absence of marks of graining on the surface of the sections. 3d, On some of the bones there were furrows, evidently made by sharpening fish-hooks or some pointed imple

ment on them. 4th, In various places nests of peroxide of iron were observed, as if an iron instrument had once been there, but had been corroded away in course of time. Mr. Kinahan draws particular attention to the circumstances that "few metals corrode as fast as iron, and that, while stone and bronze would last for ages, iron would disappear, owing to corrosion, in a comparatively short space of time."

The Gibraltar Cave Fossils.-Mr. Busk in his paper on this subject says: The rock in which the caverns of Gibraltar were found is limestone, and extends for about three miles from north to south, at an elevation varying from 1,400 to 1,200 feet. It is geologically divided into three nearly equal portions by cleavages which separate the higher parts of the rock on the north and south from the central and lower part. At the southern face of the rock there is comparatively low ground, the Windmill Hill being about 400 feet above the level of the sca; but the strata there are inclined in an opposite direction to the great mass of what is termed the "Rock of Gibraltar." In the Windmill rock the caverns have been found, and in these latter a great quantity of bones was discovered. The bones, which were mingled with pot tery, flint implements, and charcoal, appear to have been deposited at different periods, and were found at various depths, the lowest being fourteen feet below the floor of the cavern. Those in the lowest layer consisted of the bones of mammals, several of which were of extinct species. They were imbedded in ferruginous earth partially fossilized, and were covered with sta lagmite-no human bones were with them. Above this layer were depos ited the remains of about thirty human skeletons, with fragments of pottery, flint implements, particles of charcoal, and a bronze fishing-hook. Some of the pottery had been turned in a lathe. and bore evidence of classic art. In another cavern, discovered under the foundation of the military prison, the remains of two isolated skeletons were also found. Only one skull had been discovered there, and that had been sent to Mr. Busk, who remarked that the lower jaw transmitted with the cranium did not belong to it, showing that there must have been another skul

in the cavern, though no trace of it had been found. There was nothing in the form of the skull to distinguish it from the ordinary European type; but the bones of the leg were remarkably compressed; for which appearance it was difficult to account. Since Mr. Busk's attention had been drawn to this character, he had observed a similar compression in the leg-bones of other human skeletons which were known to be of great antiquity. Whether this conformation was to be regarded as a race-character, or was produced by special occupation or habit, Mr. Busk would not venture an opinion upon.Social Science Review.

Sun's Photosphere.-From a strict examination of the sun-pictures obtained at Kew, near London, and from Mr. Carrington's maps, Mr. De la Rue and assistants have arrived at the conclusion that the sun-spots are cavernous, and lie below the general level of the luminous surface, whilst, on the contrary, the faculæ are elevated above the latter. The reason that the faculæ appear brighter is, that on account of their height above the solar surface, they are less dimmed by passing through its atmosphere. They further conclude that the sun's luminous surface is of the nature of cloud, and that the spots are influenced by the planet Venus. They find that the faculæ retain nearly the same appearance for days together, and consider them to be small particles of solid or liquid matter in suspension, and composed of the same cloudy matter as the luminous surface of the sun. They notice that in the majority of cases the faculæ appear to the left of the spots, as if they had been abstracted from them, and, rising to a greater elevation where the velocity of rotation is greater, are consequently left behind. They remark that all the spots which are seen on the solar surface about the same time show a resemblance to each other; for instance, if one spot increases to the central line or past it, another will do the same; if one spot diminishes from its first appearance, another will do the same; if one spot breaks out on the right half, another will do the same. It appears from Mr. Carrington's and all the Kew pictures, that the influence of Venus is exerted in such a manner that as the spots approach the neighborhood of this planet

by rotation they decrease; but as the solar surface passes away in the same manner, this influence causes it to break out into spots on the opposite side. The question is also proposed, whether the falling behind of the faculæ may not be the physical reaction of the motion of the spots detected by Mr. Carrington, the current passing upward and carrying the luminous matter fall ing behind, whilst the current coming down from a colder region moves forward, carrying the spot with it, and accounting for its deficient luminosity.Social Science Review.

The Arctic Expedition.-The Open P lar Sea again.-Last month we published an extract in which it was stated as the belief of the writer that there was an open Arctic sea. Here is another opinion which we find in the London Reader of a late date: "We have received from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences a map of Spitzbergen, with explanatory remarks in illustration (by N. Duner and A. E. Nordenskiöld). This beautiful map is the result of the two last expeditions undertaken to explore that group of islands. It is based upon astronomical observations, made at about eighty different places on the shores of Spitzbergen, with prism-circles by Pistor and Martins, mercury horizons and good chronometers by Frodsham and Kessels. The observations were calculated by Professors D. G. Lindhagen and Duner. The latitude and longitude of seventy-nine different points are given the longitude of Sabine's Observatory, determined as 11° 40' 30", being taken as the starting point of the longitudes. such a map is at once apparent. All the highest mountains were ascended during the expedition, and the height of twenty-eight peaks is given; the highest being Lindström's Mount of 3,300 English feet. The permanent snow-line commences at about 1,500 feet. The whole interior country forms an even ice plateau, here and there interrupted by rocks. There are many good harbors, and on this map the places are marked where the explorers anchored. Fish, fowl, and reindeer are to be met with in great numbers. quote from the memoir as bearing upon one of the most interesting questions of the day. During the last years the idea has been vindicated that the Polar

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to

basin is composed of an open sea, only here and there covered with drift ice. The learned geographer, Dr. Petermann, has even asserted that it would be as easy to sail from Amsterdam Island (79° 47′) to the Pole, as from Tromsö to Amsterdam Island. This view is in itself so contrary to all experience that it scarcely merits refutation, but as different prominent English Arctic navigators seem inclined to adopt the same view, in spite of the experience gained by their own numerous Arctic expeditions, we will nere give some of the most important reasons against this supposition. All who for a long period have navigated the northern seas, whalers and Spitzbergen hunters, have come the conclusion that the Polar basin is 30 completely filled with ice that one cannot advance with vessels, and all the attempts that have been made to proceed toward the north have been quite without success. Passing by older voyagers, Torell and Nordenskiöld ascended, during the expedition in 1861, on the 23d of July, a high top on Northeast Land, Snötoppen (80° 23′ L.), without being able, from that height, to see trace of open water to the north of the Seven Islinds. A few days later, when the ice between Northeast Land and the Seven Islands was separated a little, they could push forward as far as to Parry's Island, though they, even froin the highest tops on these islands (1,900 feet, 80° 40' L.), could see nothing but ice northward. From the top of White mountain, at the bottom of Wijde Jans Water (3,000 feet), we could, on the 22d of August, 1864, not see anything but ice between Giles Land and Spitzbergen.

Some

vessels that had the same year attempted to sail round Northeast Land were shut up by ice, and had to be abandoned by their crews. Before leaving the ships, an attempt was made to sail north, in order to return this way to Amsterdam Island, but they were soon met by impenetrable fields of ice. Notwithstanding a high prize has been offered for the reaching of high degrees of latitude, none of the whalers, who else sail boldly wherever the hope of gain allures them, have considered it possible to win this prize. We have had opportunities of speaking to most of the mas ters of vessels sailing to Spitzbergen. All experience hitherto acquired seems thus to prove that the Polar basin, when not covered with compact, unbroken ice, is filled with closely-packed, unnavigable drift-ice, in which, during certain very favorable years, some larger apertures may be formed, which apertures, however, do not extend very far to the north. Older narratives, by Dutch whalers, who are said to have reached 86° or 87°, nay, even 894°, must therefore be received with the greatest dilidence, if not looked upon as pure fictions, and the prospect of being able to advance with vessels from Spitzbergen to the Pole is, no doubt, extremely slight. It would be partien larly unwise to choose the spring for such an attempt, and the passage east of Spitzbergen. At that time and by that par sage it would be difficult, if not impossi ble, to reach even 78° of latitude. Whereas, on the west side, one can every year depend on reaching the 80th degree of latitude, and in favor able years it might be possible, in September or October, to sail even s couple of degrees higher.'"

SIXTEEN REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE, made to a devout servant of our Lord, called Mother Juliana, an anchorite of Norwich, who lived in the days of King Edward the Third. 12mo., pp. 214. Boston: Ticknor & Fields.

We Catholics of the United States have good reason to congratulate ourselves upon the appearance of this work. The selection of such a work for republication is proof of good judgment in the Boston publishers, while certainly nothing can be more elegant and tasteful than the "getting up."

Mother Juliana lived in the city of Norwich, England; and, as we are notified by the famous Father Cressy, who first published and edited her "Revelations," she wrote during the reign of Edward the Third, and about three years before his death. She was an anchoret or recluse, a religious woman who, like St. Bees and many others in England and elsewhere, lived alone, shut up by herself, in contemplation and prayer. It is to us a great mystery that these "Revelations," so excellent in themselves, and edited once by such a man, should be so little known in our day, and should owe their reproduction once more in English literature to Protestant curiosity and not to Catholic piety. We know of nothing of the same kind which can compare with them. There is an odor of supernatural sweetness about them, and a depth of contemplative thought, a freshness moreover and originality, which has never impressed us before when reading books of revelations. Critical authors have sometimes complained of works of this nature that much in them of what seems elevated or profound is evidently derived, at second hand, from the speculations of theologians, and especially of the philosophical schoolmen; while other things, supposed to have been seen in vision, are the reproduction of early histories, once popular, but proved to be apocryphal and destitute of all authority. Nothing of the kind can be said of these revelations of Mother Juliana. They sometimes touch upon questions most pro

found and difficult, but in the simplest and most inartificial manner, and there is not the slightest appearance of reproducing what she had read elsewhere. Every thought bears the stamp of originality and freshness. All is drawn from the same deep well of contemplation. All comes from her own mind, whether that mind be divinely illuminated or not. There is not the least semblance of searching after what is wonderful, or calculated to strike an undisciplined and curious imagination. For our own part, we cannot resist the impression that the beautiful and holy light which beams upon these pages is a divine illumination, is something su pernatural. When we say supernatural, this does not necessarily infer anything strictly miraculous, or revelation in the highest sense of the word (supernaturally attested, as well as supernaturally given). We mean simply to say that there is apparent a certain unction and power of spiritual vision which betokens an extraordinary gift of divine love and light, to which her natural power, unaided, could never reach. In reading this book one is impressed in the same way as when reading the Holy Scriptures or Thomas à Kempis. There is a natural beauty of style and thought, but that is not all. There is inspiration, too. It is like a far-reaching landscape in a fair day, where the distant hills are not fairly distinguishable from the sky, and the beauty of earth is mingled with the beauty of heaven.

We have room to give just one example, which we select as showing, in a few lines, the general characteristics of piety, sweetness, simplicity, and beauty which everywhere pervade this little

book:

"He is our clothing, that for love wrappeth us, and windeth us, halseth us, and all becloseth us, hangeth about us for tender love, that he maie never leave us. And so in this sight I saw that he is all thing that is good, as to my understanding.

"And in this he shewed a litle thing, the quantitie of a hasel-nutt, lying in the palme of my hand, as me seemed; and it was as round as a ball. I looked thereon

with the eie of my understanding, and thought,What may this be?' and it was answered generallie thus.

"It is all that is made. I marvelled how it might last: for methought it might sodenlie have fallen to naught for litleness. "And I was answered in my understanding, It lasteth and ever shall: for God loveth it. And so hath all thing being by the love of God."

COMPLETE WORKS OF THE MOST REV. JOHN HUGHES, D.D., ARCHBISHOP OF NEW YORK. Comprising his Sermons, Letters, Lectures, Speeches, etc. Carefully compiled from the best sources, and edited by Lawrence Kehoe. 2 vols. 8vo., pp. 668 and 810. New York: Lawrence Kehoe,

No. 7 Beekman street.

In opening these two capacious volumes, one of the first things that strikes us is the great number of excellent pieces from the pen of the late Archbishop of New York which are now entirely forgotten by the general public. There never was an author more careless of his fame than Dr. Hughes. He cast his writings upon the world, and gave no thought to them afterward. He was not even at the pains of keeping single copies of his own publications. So it has happened that many of his best productions have not only been long out of print, but have never even been heard of except by a few of the writer's special friends, or some of our oldest and best read Catholic citizens. We make no doubt that the collection for which the Catholic public is so much indebted to the zeal and industry of Mr. Kehoe, will cause considerable surprise among those who supposed themselves to be well acquainted with Archbishop Hughes's literary labors. How many persons, for instance, have ever heard or remember anything of a tract of some thirty or forty pages called "An Answer to Nine Objections," which Father Hughes published when he was first a priest? Or of his controversies with Dr. Delancey, the late Protestant Episcopal bishop of western New York, and Dr. Onderdonk, P. E. bishop of Pennsylvania? Or of his letters on "Infallibility," written while he was in Philadelphia? Or his once famous series of letters on the "Importance of being in Communion with the Catholic Church?" And yet some of these

deserve to rank among the most important and valuable productions of his pen. Our readers will find them all in Mr. Kehoe's volumes, and many other pieces with them which possess a more than ordinary interest. There is a long letter here to the Leopoldine Society of Vienna, in which Dr. Hughes exposes in a very graphic and masterly manner the condition of the Irish emigrants in this country: to the best of our belief it has never been published before. There is a touching and beautiful narrative, extracted from the Annals of the Propagation of the Faith for 1840 of the conversion of the Dodge Family in western New York. There is a description of a storm at sea, written during the bishop's voyage to Europe in 1839. And the second volume closes with a "Christmas Vesper Hymn," which has often been printed before, and even set to music, but will doubtless be new to many people.

We have mentioned these portions of Mr. Kehoe's collection, not only because they are less known than the archbishop's great controversies; but because every true friend of the lamented prelate's fame ought to desire them to be far better known than they are. Archbishop Hughes was one of the kindest, tenderest-hearted men that ever lived; and any one who should judge him by the severe, caustic tone of his letters to Breckinridge, for example, or his speeches on the school question, would gravely mistake his character. Most of the pieces that we have named, and some others as well, show him in his true and most amiable light.

The first volume is occupied principally by the archbishop's various letters and speeches on the School Ques tion; his letters to David Hale, Mayor Harper, and Colonel Stone; Letters on the Importance of being in Communion with the Catholic Church; Kirwan Unmasked; and a number of miscella neous lectures and sermons. The second contains a number of letters, sermons, etc., on the Temporal Power of the Pope; various lectures; thirty miscellaneous sermons; the Church Property Controversy with Senator Brooks and others; and a great deal of miscellaneous matter, including the archbishop's speeches at banquets etc., during his last visit to Europe. Bishop Bayley's admirable lecture on

over